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Video: Homs gets slammed by explosions in latest flare-up

AMMAN/BEIRUT — Syrian government forces attacked opponents of President Bashar al-Assad in cities and towns across the country on Tuesday and Arab officials confirmed that regional governments would be ready to arm the resistance if the bloodshed did not cease.

The western city of Homs, the heart of the uprising against Assad's 11-year-rule, suffered a bombardment of pro-opposition neighborhoods for the 11th day running. At least six people were reported killed.

Government forces clashed with Free Syrian Army recruits near the town of Aleppo, in the northwest of the country, The Guardian reported.

Residents also fled from Rankous, a rural town near the capital Damascus, as it came under government artillery fire.

Opposition activists said that the offensive continued early Wednesday as Assad's forces launched an offensive on the city of Hama, bombarding residential neighborhoods after armored reinforcements advanced to the edge of the city in the last week.

The neighborhoods of Faraya, Olailat, Bashoura and al-Hamidiya came under bombardment from armored vehicles and mobile mounted anti-aircraft guns as troops that had been amassing at an airport and an armored brigade based south of Hama assaulted the city, Syria's fourth largest, they said.

With Assad seemingly oblivious to international condemnation of his campaign to crush the revolt, Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia pushed for a new resolution at the United Nations supporting a peace plan forged at a meeting in Cairo on Sunday.

But Arab League diplomats said that arming the opposition forces was now officially an option.

A resolution passed at the meeting urged Arabs to "provide all kinds of political and material support" to the opposition.

This would allow arms transfers, they confirmed to Reuters.

"We will back the opposition financially and diplomatically in the beginning but if the killing by the regime continues, civilians must be helped to protect themselves. The resolution gives Arab states all options to protect the Syrian people," an Arab ambassador said.

The threat of military support was meant to add pressure on the Syrian leader and his Russian and Chinese allies but it also risks leading to a Libya-style conflict or sectarian civil war.

"I suspect we will see a further militarization of this conflict, with potentially quite widespread and dangerous consequences," said analyst Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center.

Smuggled guns are already filtering into Syria but it is not clear if Arab or other governments are behind the deliveries. Weapons and Sunni Muslim insurgents are also seeping from Iraq into Syria, Iraqi officials and arms dealers said.

Assad, whose Alawite-minority family has ruled the mainly Sunni Muslim country for 42 years, is trying to stamp out pro-democracy demonstrations and stop insurgent raids across Syria country with what U.N. officials describe as indiscriminate attacks and shoot-to-kill orders.

He dismisses his opponents as terrorists backed by enemy nations in a regional power-play and says he will introduce reforms on his own terms.

In Homs, a strategic city on the highway between Damascus and commercial hub Aleppo, the pro-opposition neighborhood of Baba Amro was struck at dawn by the heaviest shelling in five days, the Syria Observatory for Human Rights said.

Six people were killed, it said, adding to an estimated toll of more than 400 since the assault began on February 3.

"They are hitting the same spots several consecutive times, making venturing out there impossible. The shelling was heavy in the morning and now it is one rocket every 15 minutes or so," activist Hussein Nader said by satellite phone.

"Residents are trapped. We have a man who sustained severe burns and is dying and he needs a hospital."

The man was in a truck picking up wounded people in Baba Amro overnight when it was hit by rocket fire, he said.

Mohammad al-Mohammad, a doctor at a makeshift hospital in Baba Amro, appeared in a video with a wounded youth he said was shot by a sniper in his side.

"The bullet ended up in the stomach. This is a critical condition that needs transportation to a proper hospital," Mohammad said. "We appeal to anyone with conscience to intervene to stop the massacres of Bashar al-Assad and his cohorts."

Another opposition activist, Mohammad al-Homsi, said the humanitarian situation was getting worse, with food and fuel short and prices tripling. Army roadblocks had been set up around opposition districts, Homsi said from the city.

Nader said that people in residential buildings in Baba Amro were sheltering on the ground floors.

Foreign media have had to rely on activists' accounts of the situation because the Syrian government restricts access, although reports from neutral organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and Human Rights Watch confirm the general picture of widespread repression.

At the United Nations, diplomats said a draft General Assembly resolution, supporting the Arab League plan and calling for the appointment of a joint U.N.-Arab League envoy on Syria, could be put to a vote on Wednesday or Thursday.

The resolution, seen by Reuters, is similar to a Security Council draft vetoed by Russia and China on February 4 that condemned the Assad government and called on him to step aside.

There are no vetoes in General Assembly votes and its decisions are not legally binding.

An Arab League proposal for a joint Arab-U.N. peacekeeping mission be sent to Syria elicited a guarded response from Western powers, who are wary of becoming bogged down militarily in Syria. It was rejected out of hand by the Assad government.

The Syria conflict, the most prolonged of the revolts in the Arab world which saw the leaders of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya toppled last year, is shaping up to be a geopolitical struggle reminiscent of the Cold War.

Russia wants to retain its foothold in the region and counter U.S. influence. Assad is also allied to Iran, which is at odds with the United States, Europe and Israel.

The Arab drive against Assad is led by Sunni-ruled Gulf states, who also see Shi'ite Iran and its shadowy nuclear program as a threat.

Analysts say the conflict could spread across the Middle East's ethnic, religious and political fault lines if it is not resolved.

China tries to limit veto damage
Meanwhile, China's foreign ministry said Tuesday that a Chinese envoy, Li Huaxin, had met the head of the Arab League, Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby, to discuss Syria, as Beijing seeks to limit the diplomatic damage from its veto of the U.N. resolution.

The foreign ministry said its Li had an "extremely frank and useful" exchange with Elaraby.

China has insisted its veto did not amount to supporting Assad and was only taken to try and prevent the situation worsening.

But Elaraby has previously said that the veto had cost China and Russia diplomatic credit in the Arab world, and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah called the veto an "unfavorable" move.

In Libya, protesters hurled rocks at the Chinese embassy.

"China and Arab countries have a very traditional friendship and cooperative relationship, and maintain close communication and coordination on political affairs," Li said, according to the Foreign Ministry statement on its website.

"Given the constantly escalating Syrian situation, the purpose of this visit to Cairo was to explain China's position and policies to the Arab League and Arab countries, and listen to their opinions," Li said.